


The Infernal Contract

by Swurdleoma



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26298319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swurdleoma/pseuds/Swurdleoma
Summary: Out of boredom for this life, I tried to summon a demon with a rather useless magic field I learnt. However, it successfully brought a red deer demon, though of whom I never heard. We had a happy talk, and he promised that he had the perfect solution to my problem.
Relationships: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel) & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	The Infernal Contract

Today I went home like always, closed the door, and drew a magic field to practise summoning a demon, our old friend. Mephistopheles who could turn into a pub-dog. You know how it works. I learnt from a book by Faustus, exactly as it was.

I finished the magic field as well as the last line of the spell, and took up a piece of rag ready to clean up the pattern which had been one thousand and two hundred and eighty times useless. However, it suddenly made a popping noise. No smoke, sulphur, or flame appeared as expected, but a cluster of red symbols floating in the air, of which the meaning was unknown. The one that stood in the middle of the magic field, completely red from head to toe, was a, well, demon. Possibilities were limited. His costumes looked quite like an old-fashioned show host, I mean, really, really old-fashioned, or Willy Wonka. Look at the way he stood, tall and straight, and the microphone in his hand, which he held behind his back like a cane. They looked just alike, only that Johnny Depp never had a pair of dog ... no, wolf, oh no, camel? Armadillo? Owl? Deer? Oh yeah, deer ears. He had a pair of deer eats right on the top of his head.

The symbols that blocked my sight finally vanished. I, somehow in disbelief, and him, with a shining smile at his first appearance, stared at each other.

“Good afternoon! May the radio bless you!” He spoke first.

“Good afternoon, thanks, but why the radio?”

“Oh? Don’t you need a radio?”

“Rarely.”

I did not know why the hell this demon was obsessed with the radio. When he heard my reply, his smile somehow looked like being glued on his face.

“What a shame, my friend, please allow me to address you like this (“Allow or not, you already did so....”). It’s a great loss for a life that is easy enough to become boring. If you ever meet a situation where nothing attracts your interest, you may listen to my channel. I assure you that you will learn a lot about how to go down to Hell ... sorry, about life.”

“Thank you; perhaps we have something in common. You just mention my problem, about which I’ll consult later. Honestly, I still don’t know to whom or for what I owe this visit?”

He narrowed his eyes with delight. This made him look innocent and lovable. “A human had the honour to summon me to the world of the alive, but do not know my name? That is the luck, which I hate and like the most, making trouble with us.”

“The question is that, eh, the circle I drew was to summon Mephistopheles. Now that his aunt is a serpent, as far as I know, he is unlikely to have ears of herbivores.”

“That’s right.” he said, “So I’m your dear demon, for I am a deer demon.”

I was not the only one to feel bewildered. Even my cat twisted her body into the shape of a question mark — oh no, she just discovered a flying bug.

“It doesn’t really matter. Why wasn’t Mephistopheles? I thought I did it exactly according to the process.”

“About that, I’d really like to say something like ‘he works overtime recently’, but,” he took one step back, and pointed at one corner in the pattern on the floor with his vertical microphone, “there’s something wrong with this thing. You didn’t close it up here.”

“For that?”

“That means it’s entirely up to luck. You get whoever you run into. But you’re a lucky one. That old fellow is a thousand times more boring than I am. He signs a contract at his own loss every single time. Why would you trade with a demon, anyway?”

“Before getting serious, I need to know to whom I am talking.”

“Oh! Alastor. Perhaps you never heard of me, but still, nice to meet you. No need to introduce yourself. I don’t care a tiny little bit of your life, and customer information will be imported into my work record automatically.”

“Didn’t see that coming!” I said in surprise, “So you actually developed an industry out of this?”

“Or for what do you call a devil a DEVIL?” So as he spoke, he swiftly threw the microphone to another hand, so nimbly that I wondered how long he had been playing with that thing, like some circus prop. Indeed, he looked like the guy who walked onto the stage before the flying trapeze and the strongman, and announced with a strange tone, serious and jocular at the same time:

Ladies and gentlemen!

“Snap!” Alastor suddenly snapped his fingers in front of my eyes, like a thunder. So cool. I couldn’t even make it without gloves.

“Don’t think too much, and allow me to call you, my friend.” When he spoke these words he drew away from the microphone a little. Thus, I realised that he was talking over that thing all the time, until just now. That was why his voice sounded as if coming out of an old radio, much more weird and splendid. His own voice, however, was more alive, and heartily, even though I knew he could not be. Just think about it. How could you work as a devil if you could not appear more heartily than human beings?

“Please take a seat.” I said, “It’s very impolite of me as a host. I don’t have much to offer, though. There’s only black coffee.”

“Ah,” he sounded pleased, and did not hesitate to sit down on my — desk, with his legs crossed,” it seems that we do have something in common.”

“What? You mean coffee?”

“Tell me why you summoned the demon.” he changed the topic without reason, “Anyone that asks for a contract craves for something.”

“Well,” I replied, “Since long ago I had realised that my life was good for nothing....”

“Those who summon a demon are always like this.”

I stared at him. In return, the demon laughed cheerfully. Even the speaker, which I never found, laughed along.

“Nothing. Please go on.”

The demon had been very gentle ever since he appeared. I almost forgot that he was the destructive power of evilness, and started a fight.

“I’m not one of those who take a vow to be successful during this life.” I said, “To be useless appears not a sin to me.”

“That's commendable.” said Alastor delightedly, “Those enterprising clients messed the demons real good. The contract might be something beyond mortal imagination, but mortal imagination is also beyond demons’ expectation.”

“Faust was not the only one?”

“I’ll tell you if we have time, about how you can suffer from loss even if you get that soul. But at the moment, please finish your statement.”

“I should say that the theory of ‘sin’ or ‘sinners’ means very little to me. By now my difficulty is boredom. It’s not that I have nothing to do, but no matter how many new things I look for, I lose interest in them very soon. I truly admire those who keep enthusiasm in one thing and reach the peak of perfection. I never know how long lasting love feels.”

“I thought all human beings felt the same.” his smiley face started to look ill-intentioned, “So there are exceptions?”

I sighed. “Somehow like your kind always had the fervour to have fun in human world.”

“Oh no, not me. I had only left the world of the living for decades. Today I just accidentally took the old gentleman's turn.”

“I’m terribly sorry. But I think you get it?”

“Perfectly. To sum up, you're in distress, and all kinds of distress can be removed with one thing. What do you say?”

“Please don’t say ‘money’.” I said, “I’m not a rich person, but experience already taught me that money will not cure this.”

“You don’t want endless new things?” It was an exclusive that he could keep his smile while being startled.

“I wish for the ability to love something forever to avoid boredom.”

“So that’s what you're up to, well....” For a moment his smile became unwilling, but soon bright again, “Not as easy as I expected, but more enchanting this way! See what the old gentleman has missed! One so hard to be tempted, but still choosing to summon the devil! It’s astonishing! Now let me ask the last question: If I provide you with one thing that you will definitely love forever, will that be an alternative for the answer you seek?”

I thought about it cautiously. “Of course it seems to have the same effect, but first I must know exactly what you mean.”

“Careful!” Alastor suddenly held the microphone in his arms and stared at me, leaning forward, like a cat with ears pricking up and eyes wide open. “Wise guys can be the most difficult, but it’s dangerous to try to outsmart the devil. They always meet an ending more miserable than the fools. Are you sure that you want to know?”

“I’d love to.”

“Difficult indeed.”

By that time his red eyes became scarlet, strange and jesting. He raised one hand in glove and snapped. With himself as the centre, a circle of black flame was kindled, and the red symbols appeared again. He clutched his fists with an expression that could almost be called ruthless, and then....

All of a sudden the strange sight all disappeared. Alastor became calm again. He reached for his pocket.

“My bad. Almost forgot that it’s here in my pocket.”

“Nothing. Just completely erased my idea of asking if there was any precedent of human dating demon.”

“Hopeless, no matter there was or not. I have no such need.”

“What if the client signs the contract and orders you as your master?”

“Oh! How cruel of you to use the word ‘order’! What age is this? That oppressive kind or relationship is forbidden. Contracts we sign are righteous and equal.”

“... I believe it was forbidden at any time.”

He smiled in a mysterious way, and passed me a bag no bigger than my palm. Those white, bright teeth made him look like a shrewd salesman.

“I can’t let you use it before we sign the contract, but you can take a slight smell of it. I guess that’s enough.”

“No, wait,” I smelled something devious first, “just tell me what it is.”

“There's no way. It has no name. Devils in the old ways used to value names, but I do not. I have reservations about ‘defining’ something.”

I figured it was just as strenuous talking with any of the demons. “Not that serious. I merely want to know what it’s for and how it works.”

“Bling~ be careful about what you say! Those are the words of the wise guys, but, it doesn’t matter. Nowadays clients are getting sly, but that cannot be helped. Many years before people even believed in the philosopher's stone.”

“Too many years before. But maybe someday in the future people would say: Think about those years when people still watch TV. Just like what they do to radio now — Oh I’m sorry!”

It was hard to figure out whether he was angry, but he suddenly twisted his neck to almost 90 degrees and gazed at me coldly, so it must have been something I said that upset him.

To retrospect on it, this demon seemed to care a hell about the radio.

By that time he already opened the little bag and took a pinch of powder out of it.

“One sniff will be enough.”

Now I had to decline, no matter what.

“Boy, this looks odd from material to usage. I don’t even want to try.”

“I know what you're trying to imply, but, I don’t interfere with that. Those who will corrupt will corrupt. No need for me to give a push.”

“So it’s not that kind of thing?”

“Of course not! I despise those who live on it.” When he said so, he threw back his shoulders. One face could hardly hold that big smile.

“Thank God if the Devil may tell the truth.”

I opened my hand to hold the powder, but he shook his head. “Don’t touch it. It does you no good before the contract is done.”

So, I had to take a sniff from his hand. Honestly, it hardly had any smell. I guessed some extremely tiny particles entered my respiratory tract and took effect.

For a moment time went back.

There was no spectacular visual sight. No strange sounds. Only the smell that I felt hard to tell made me feel as if time went back. I stood now at the gate of my old junior high school, and the old classmate was by my side, just like how he was. I, as foolish as I was, said to him:

“Hey, you look just the same after you grow up.”

He looked at me, shocked.

Then the smell probably dissipated. I was in the room again, face in face with the demon.

“Well, hey, Alastor, explain this to me.”

“Didn’t you see it with your own eyes?”

“That was the effect of it.”

“Effect is the essence. How does the name matter?” He withdrew his hand in an elegant way, rubbed his fingertips, and gave me a sidelong glance.

“No, effect is not the essence. You see, I still want to know what it is.”

“You already saw it, for real.” He said meaningfully,” That was why those who never committed any crime also suffer in the Hell without an end.”

I was silent for a while. Or, I thought about it calmly.

“That’s all that you suggest?”

“Yes, and by the way, it only exists in the Hell if you don’t sign the contract.”

“That's the easiest thing I know.” I said, “I never expected to end in any other way. Will a person go to heaven after summoning a demon? I’m not going to repent it anyway. I don’t think I will.”

“Now look who talks more like the devil!” The speaker that hid somewhere around laughed presumptuously with him.

“Any other plans, demon friend?”

“One is a lot. Greed will ruin everything. Besides, it does you no harm. Counting in the days in Hell, you’ll have the eternity to repeat this life again and again for infinite possibilities.”

“Sounds very refreshing, truly,” I finally said, “but not my taste.”

“You plan to give up the contract?” Alastor's monocle jumped up, “It’s a chance you’ll only meet once in a thousand lives! Old Mephistopheles will never think of it! Well, of course, suit yourself if you already made up your mind. The devil receives countless orders from all around the world every day, even for the laziest ones like me.”

“Perhaps because girls all like you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. You sure you won’t need it this time?”

“This time? Oh yes, at least for this time.”

“All I can say is, what a shame.” But he did not look like that. He was tucking the bag back into his pocket with a professional host smile. For no apparent reason, I felt that his smile was even more evil.

“No, Alastor, not that bad.” I replied, “It wouldn’t be too late to meet again after I go down to Hell. Besides, I know what kind of thing I can like forever.”

When the circle of black fire was lit again, I had a feeling that he would directly drag me down to the inferno with that evil and bright smile face, but it was just hallucination. He disappeared calmly as the way he came. Before becoming completely transparent, he gave an old-fashioned salute, really, really old-fashioned salute. In response, I made a deep curtsey. I was not able to see how he reacted.

The door opened. Impeccable timing. My roommate came in. She sniffed hard.

“A smell of something burnt. Did you trigger the smoke alarm? Hey, what is this you drew on the floor? Were you dreaming about going down to hell again?”

  
“No,” I answered, “not dream at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I decided that I would like Alastor forever.


End file.
